Today the Star of India is a San Diego icon. Fifty-plus years ago, when I first viewed the Star, she was a derelict.

Which is an odd way of getting around to one of my favorite things about San Diego – the men and women of the San Diego Maritime Museum.

Any boat is labor intensive. And the man hours needed to maintain a boat grow exponentially with the age, size and physical makeup of the vessel.

Which is why I am in awe of the people involved with the San Diego Maritime Museum.

Of course, the Star of India stands out. The three-masted barque is the centerpiece – and something of a piece de resistance. The Star is one of 18 restored historic ships worldwide recognized as Treasures of Humanity.

But the Star of India is not the only treasure in the collection.

Actually, every ship and boat in the collection is a treasure, although I personally could do without the Foxtrot-class submarine that once stalked the carrier Midway in the Sea of Japan for the Soviet Union.

Like the Star of India, the ferry Berkeley and steam yacht Medea are pristine restorations of a bygone era. And the replica pieces – the Californian (the state's official tall ship) and HMS Surprise – honor their heritage.

Four of my favorite boats at the museum are on the barge out behind the Berkeley – the Butcher Boy (San Diego's first yacht), the PC-class sailboat Wings and the matched Monterey fishing boats Mary Ann and La Diana.

Beauties all. And well worth the $14 (adult) price of admission – and for another $3 you can take a trip on San Diego Bay on the museum's Pilot. The Maritime Museum also offers sailing trips on San Diego Bay aboard the Californian on Saturdays and Sundays and teams with Dennis Conner to offer whale watching voyages aboard the replica schooner America – of America's Cup fame.

But again, the best things about the Maritime Museum are its people and their vision.

Last year, 500 volunteers donated 75,000 hours to the Maritime Museum. I hear CEO Ray Ashley announce those numbers and I wonder how many hours have gone into the Star of India since the original restoration work began 50 years ago.

That project culminated in 1976 when the Star of India sailed July 4 – the first outing of what has become an annual celebration for the museum. By that time, the museum already had acquired the Berkeley and Medea.

Now, the San Diego Maritime Museum is approaching further expansion that will strengthen the museum's ties to San Diego's own maritime history.

Within months, Ashley expects the USS Dolphin will join the museum's fleet. Yes, the Dolphin is also a submarine. But the Navy's last diesel-electric sub also had the longest career of any Naval vessel operating out of San Diego.

Eventually, Ashley wants to add a tuna seiner to the collection to tie the museum to San Diego's departed fishing industry.

And then there is the San Salvador.

Ashley hopes to soon announce a viewable-by-the-public building site for the construction of the replica to the Spanish Galleon that Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay in 1542.

“We are looking for displays that are direct ties to San Diego,” Ashley said.

As beautiful as the Star of India, Berkeley and Medea are, none of the three were ever near San Diego during their working lives.

Which brings us to the beginning of the San Diego Maritime Museum.

It started as an arm of the San Diego Zoological Society in 1927 when the zoo decided to build a bay-front aquarium as part of a San Diego Bay-to-Balboa Park project. The Star of India was purchased for $9,000 with the idea that it would house the aquarium tanks.

Then came the Depression and World War II, during which the Star dodged two fatal bullets. The Navy considered towing the Star of India to New Caledonia as an ammunition barge. After the ship was declared unfit for that mission, she faced being scrapped.

But World War II ended with the decaying Star of India still sitting in San Diego Bay. The San Diego Maritime Museum was incorporated in 1948 in part to decide the fate of the Star. Eleven years later, the actual renovation began.

And for half a century, the work has continued nonstop along the Embarcadero.